Holy crap! You’re here!

You’ve waded through the river of feces that is high school and somehow found a university – and a program! – that will gladly take your money for four (or more) years.

Small-town livin’ is behind you. Gone are the days of standing by the gas station or walking in the mall or whatever the hell you did back there. Gone are the nights you spent in someone’s basement, drinking cheap vodka with juice while listening to those tunes you and your friends have collectively decided to describe as “sick beats.” You. Have. Made. It.

You’re in the big city, and even if you’re not technically renting an apartment downtown, the majority of your time is still going to be spent here. You’re not visiting or crashing for the night or “Oh, pardon me officer, I’m just here to pick up my fake I.D.” No siree, Mr. McGee, Ryerson and the city are now your home.

Being in Toronto while attempting to attain some sort of useful knowledge from Ryerson is a ridiculously exciting time. The city is massive and crazy, its streets and subways stuffed with humans and machines. Rob Ford is mayor and he could very well win again.

You’ll meet people from all kinds of backgrounds, not just at the city’s numerous bars and restaurants, but on our tiny campus too. Sooner or later, you will meet someone from a completely different part of Planet Earth, and you will learn about their life, culture and upbringing as they learn about yours. That’s pretty fucking exciting.

You’ll be pushed out of your comfort zone regularly, which is a good thing. University teaches you to despise routines, and you’ll need that desire for novelty in the real world.

Sure, ideologies and beliefs you have might be destroyed, but they’ll be replaced with new ones. You may lose your religion or cling to it even more. Friends you once called “bro” or “bae” or whatever the freakin’ lexicon has become these days might vanish, again, only to be replaced with new ones.

You have no reason to be scared, though, because you’ve reached the part of your life that matters the most, and it’s just starting now.